List of personalities of the city of Sondershausen

The list of personalities of the city of Sondershausen lists people chronologically according to the year of birth and arranged in centuries

• born in Sondershausen and / or
• died in this city and / or
• were or are significant through their actions in and around Sondershausen.

In its over a thousand-year history, the city of Sondershausen has developed from the spiritual center of North Thuringia - Jechaburg Abbey - over more than six centuries as the residence of the counts and later princes of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen . The residence status brought about the development of a garrison town and an administrative center, a music town and a cultural center. Favorable natural conditions and the geographical location developed Sondershausen into a mountain town and the location of world-famous electrotechnical products. Correspondingly, the respective centuries brought numerous researchers, historians, artists, musicians, athletes, politicians and many personalities from other areas or moved them to this city.

Honorary citizen

Karl von Bloedau

Valentin E. Loescher

Johann Günther von Schwarzburg-Sondershausen

Christian Wilhelm von Schwarzburg-Sondershausen

Johann Karl Wezel

Johann Günther Friedrich Cannabich

Friedrich von Sydow

Thilo Irmisch

Curt Mücke

Michael Kohl (1974)

Günther Jahn

Roland Paris

Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann

Caspar Loescher

Johann Simon Hermstedt

Carl Scheppig

E. Marlitt

Karl Günther, last Prince of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen

Max break

Cyrill Kistler

Max Reger

Ferdinand crowd

Walter Kollo

Ernst Wilhelm Borchert

Albert Hetterle 1960 with Inge Keller

Ute Freudenberg

• Carl von Bloedau (1804–1886), doctor and local politician
• Wilhelm Kieser (1811–1895), grammar school director, member of the state parliament of the Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
• Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898), first Chancellor of the German Empire
• Carl Schroeder (1848–1935), court conductor, composer, founder of the conservatory
• Theodor Bauer (1858–1944), ministerial official and politician (DVP)
• Kurt Lindner (1877–1966), entrepreneur

and 13 other honorary citizens from 1848 to 1933. No new honorary citizens have been appointed since then.

sons and daughters of the town

By 1700

• Günther XL von Schwarzburg (1499–1552), count; first allowed the Protestant faith in his county, had the castle complex in Sondershausen torn down and converted into a renaissance castle
• Günther XLI. von Schwarzburg-Arnstadt (1529–1583), count, called "the arguable" (Bellicosus)
• Johann Günther von Schwarzburg-Sondershausen (1532–1586), count, founder of the Schwarzburg-Sondershausen line
• Wilhelm I of Schwarzburg-Frankenhausen (1534–1598), Count
• Albrecht VII of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1537–1605), Count
• Joachim Manard (Manhard, Manardt) (1564–1637), chronicler of the city
• Salomo Glassius (1593–1656), Lutheran theologian
• Georg Ludwig Agricola (1643–1676), musician
• Christian Wilhelm von Schwarzburg-Sondershausen (1647–1721), Count, raised to the rank of imperial prince by Emperor Leopold in 1697; had the renaissance castle in Sondershausen rebuilt in baroque style and made the city a cultural center of northern Thuringia
• Ludwig Günther Martini (1647–1719), lawyer
• Christian Ludwig Boxberg (1670–1729), composer and organist
• Valentin Ernst Löscher (1673–1749), theologian and writer
• August I. von Schwarzburg-Sondershausen (1691–1750), apanaged prince and founder of the faience factory in Abtsbessingen
• Andreas Toppius (1605–1677), regional historian, pastor in Tennstedt

18th century

• Ernst Anton Nicolai (1722–1802), medic
• Gottfried Christian Cannabich (1745–1830), Protestant theologian
• Ernst Ludwig Gerber (1746–1819), composer, music writer and musician
• Johann Karl Wezel (1747–1819), poet
• Adolf Felix Heinrich Posse (1760–1825), legal scholar
• Günther Friedrich Carl I. (1760–1837), ruling prince from 1794 to 1835, laid the foundations for the “city of music Sondershausen” with the introduction of public concerts, theaters in 1815 and 1825 and Hermstedt's appointment as court conductor
• Friedrich Carl Ludloff (1766–1824), German forest secretary and local writer
• Karl Christian Ferdinand Chop (1767–1840), German privy councilor in the Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
• Johann Friedrich Suckow (1769–1842), musician
• Kaspar Friedrich von Gottschalck (1772–1854), ducal. Anhalt-Bernburg Hofrath, writer and author (Meine Streifereien in den Harz 1800, paperback for travelers in the Harz 1806, The knight castles and mountain castles of Germany 1810 (9 volumes), Almanach der Ritterorden 1817)
• August Christian Wilhelm Gimmerthal (1774–1840), educator
• Johann Günther Friedrich Cannabich (1777–1859), teacher, pastor and geographer
• Friedrich von Sydow (1780–1845), officer and German writer
• Wilhelmine von Sydow (1789–1867), pseudonym: Isidore Grönau, writer
• August Adolf Gottschalck (1794–1855), politician and district administrator
• Karl Wurmb von Zinck (1795–1890), Castle Captain of Merseburg, Royal Prussian Lieutenant General, Knight of Honor of the Order of St. John and Fideikommissherr on Witzschersdorf

19th century

• Günther Friedrich Carl II. (1801–1889), ruling prince 1835–1880, gave the country the first constitution in 1841, under which the industrialization of Sondershausen began, brought Schinkel pupil Scheppig from Berlin and commissioned him to redesign the palace and its surroundings in a classical style
• Friedrich Chop (1801–1875), head of the March Ministry in Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
• Carl von Bloedau (1804–1886), doctor and local politician
• Gottfried Herrmann (1808–1878), organist and composer
• Friedrich Zahn (1812–1866), court preacher
• Thilo Irmisch (1816–1879), botanist and local researcher
• Ludwig von Schlotheim (1818–1889), Prussian general of the cavalry
• Karl Chop (1825–1882), lawyer, notary, natural scientist and writer, head of the meteorological station in Sondershausen
• Wilhelm Bertram (* 1829), politician
• Georg Lewin (1820–1896), dermatologist and university professor
• Robert von Wurmb (1835–1911), royal Prussian lieutenant general
• Günther Lutze (1840–1930), botanist, local researcher and chronicler
• Friedrich Pietzker (1844–1916), teacher, textbook author and mathematician
• Stefanie Keyser (1847–1926), writer
• Johanna Amina Julie Clara Herrmann (1853–1931), pianist and concert organizer
• Felix Schwabach (1855–1928), Prussian civil servant and politician
• Friedrich August Max Hesse (* 1858, in Sondershausen; † 1907, Leipzig), bookseller, publisher; 1880, Max Hesses Verlag, Leipzig; 1910, Hesse & Becker publishing house, Leipzig
• Edmund Döring (1860–1938), teacher and local history researcher
• Hermann Hesse (1861–1948), conductor and musician
• Felix Becker (1864–1928), art historian
• Curt von Bloedau (1864–1924), district administrator and member of the state parliament
• Carl Moeller (1867–1920), pastor and local researcher
• Ferdinand Schlufter (1871–1948), mayor
• Martha Blech-Frank (1871–1962), opera singer (soprano)
• Carl Zimmer (1873–1950), zoologist
• Curt Mücke (1885–1940), painter and graphic artist
• Heinrich Schecker (1891–1944), educator and cultural historian
• Hermann Müller (1891–1984), local history researcher
• Hanns von Rohr (1895–1988), major general
• Kurt Goerttler (1898–1983), anatomist

20th century

• Alfred Eckardt (1903–1980), experimental physicist, electrical engineer and professor at the University of Jena
• Karl Krieghoff (1905–1984), local poet
• Kurt Lindner (1906–1987), entrepreneur and hunting scientist
• Herbert Wilhelmy (1910–2003), geographer
• Werner Schubert-Deister (1921–1991), painter
• Rudolf Arzinger (1922–1970), international lawyer
• Rolf Hagen (1922–2009), historian and director of the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum
• Lori Ludwig (1924–1986), writer
• Heinz Scharr (1924–2017), visual artist
• Dietfried Jorke (1926–2019), internist and hematologist
• Michael Kohl (1929–1981), lawyer and Deputy Foreign Minister of the GDR
• Helmut Bez (1930–2019), writer
• Olaf Koch (1932–2001), conductor and university professor, chief conductor of the Halle Philharmonic and rector of the Hanns Eisler University of Music in Berlin
• Ronald Paris (* 1933), painter
• Günther Jahn (1933–2011), painter and graphic artist
• Henning Klostermann (* 1938), geographer and politician
• Harald Kahl (* 1941), politician
• Peter Hengstermann (* 1950), local politician, district administrator of the Kyffhäuserkreis
• Vera Lengsfeld (* 1952), politician
• Jörg Hoffmann (* 1963), luge athlete, 1988 Olympic champion in Calgary
• Dago Leukefeld (* 1963), handball coach
• Alexander Voigt (* 1964), bassoonist and actor
• Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann (* 1966), speed skater
• Steffen Grimm (* 1970), Mayor of Sondershausen since 2018
• Volker Strübing (* 1971), writer, author and songwriter
• Franziska Gehm (* 1974), children's and youth author
• Patrick Kurth (* 1976), politician (FDP)
• Hendrik Möbus (* 1976), neo-Nazi, musician and convicted murderer
• Martin Höfer (* 1982), concept and media artist

People connected to the city

By 1700

• Bonifatius (672 / 75–754 / 55), Christianized the region around Sondershausen for the first time; According to legend, he destroyed the figure of Jecha on the Frauenberg
• Albrecht von Halberstadt (Albertus) (around 1200), poet and canon
• Botho zu Stolberg the Elder (1375–1455)
• Sigismund Strophius († 1591), chronicler of the Schwarzburger
• Gottfried Fritzsche (1578–1638), organ builder
• Tobias Michael (1592–1657), composer and Thomas Cantor
• Caspar Löscher (1636–1718), Lutheran theologian and superintendent of Sondershausen
• Johann Mützel (1647–1717), baroque architect, was involved in the expansion of the special houses palace from 1680
• Benjamin Scharff (1651–1702), doctor and city physician at Sondershausen
• Georg Friedrich Meinhart (1651–1718), Protestant theologian and superintendent
• Johann Christoph Rothe (1653–1700 / 20), composer, violinist and singer
• Christian Wermuth (1661–1739), medalist
• Auguste Dorothea von Schwarzburg-Sondershausen (1666–1751), Countess
• Carl Gustav Heraeus (1671–1725), scholar and councilor
• Johann Alexander Thiele (1685–1752), court painter of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
• Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690–1749), Kapellmeister, composer and music theorist
• Friedrich Albrecht Augusti (1691–1782), Protestant clergyman and theologian as well as former rabbi, was promoted by Prince Günther von Sonderhausen and converted to Christianity in Sondershausen
• Elisabeth Albertine von Schwarzburg-Sondershausen (1693–1774), first princess

18th century

• Johann Philipp Kirnberger (1721–1783), music theorist and composer
• Felix Johann Albrecht Mylius (1717–1792), lawyer, court and consistorial councilor
• Nikolaus Dietrich Giseke (1724–1765), poet
• Johann Ludwig Meil (1729–1772), draftsman, painter and sculptor
• Martin Peltier (approx. 1738–1769), architect; the west wing of the building was Sondershäuser castle involved
• Rudolf Steiner (1742–1804), architect at the Sondershäuser Hof
• Rudolph Zacharias Becker (1752–1822), Princely Councilor of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
• August Blumröder (1776–1860), officer, publicist and member of the Frankfurt National Assembly
• Johann Simon Hermstedt (1778–1846), royal court conductor and clarinetist
• Johann Samuel Ferdinand Blumröder (1793–1878), member of the first state parliament of the Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen

19th century

• Carl Scheppig (1803–1885), architect and princely court building officer, classicist redesign of the residential palace and its surroundings, construction of the main guard and the prince's palace
• Henriette Schramm-Graham (1803–1876), singer, soprano and actress
• Eduard von Michael (1805–1874), forester, head and reformer of the Schwarzburg forestry
• Hermann Friedrich Valentin (1812–1885), lawyer and member of the Reichstag
• Philipp Heidenheim (1814–1906), teacher at the Jewish school in Sondershausen and rabbi
• Mathilde von Schwarzburg-Sondershausen (1814–1888), princess
• Eduard Stein (1818–1864), conductor and Princely Court Kapellmeister in Sondershausen
• Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski (1822–1896), violinist, conductor and musicologist
• Thekla Naveau (1822–1871), women's rights activist and children's book author, opened a Froebel kindergarten in Sondershausen with her sister in the 1850s
• Karl von Gerber (1823-1891), lawyer
• Heinrich Friedrich Frankenberger (1824–1885), composer
• Eugenie Marlitt (John) (1825–1887), storyteller and writer
• Otto Reinhardt (1826–1915), lawyer, Minister of State of the Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen and member of the German Reichstag
• Karl Günther von Schwarzburg-Sondershausen (1830–1909), last prince from this noble family
• Georg Kruse (1830–1908), actor and writer
• Moritz Schoenlank (1830–1920), Chasan, religion teacher and Schochet
• Heinrich Leonhard Brügmann (1832–1893), entrepreneur and founder of the potash mine
• Anna Schramm (1835–1916), soprano, soubrette and actress
• Minna Kautsky (1837–1912), actress and writer
• Max Bruch (1838–1920), composer and conductor
• Hermann Walter (1838–1909), German photographer and picture chronicler
• Alfred Volkland (1841–1905), royal court pianist and music director in Sondershausen
• Philipp Spitta (1841–1894), musicologist and court conductor
• Herrmann Petersen (1844–1917), Minister of State in the Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, lent his name to the Petersenschacht in Sondershausen
• Carl Slevogt (1845–1922), lawyer and member of the German Reichstag
• Alexander Mackenzie (1847–1935), Scottish composer and conductor
• Max Erdmannsdörfer (1848–1905), composer and conductor
• Friedrich Seitz (1848–1918), composer, violinist and violin teacher
• Carl Schroeder (1848–1935), court conductor, composer and founder of the conservatory
• Cyrill Kistler (1848–1907), music teacher and composer
• Hugo Riemann (1849–1919), musicologist
• Theodor Quentin (1851–1905), important church builder
• Günther Victor von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1852–1925), from 1909–1918 also ruling Prince von Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, was the last federal prince of the German Empire until 1918, and on November 25, 1918, he abdicated as the last German prince
• Reimer Hansen (1853–1926), senior teacher and local history researcher
• Eli Marcus (1854–1935), writer and actor
• Paul Stade (1854–1931), painter and drawing teacher
• Karl Pohlig (1858–1928), German-speaking pianist and composer
• Pauline Horson (1858–1918), soprano and chamber singer
• Edmund König (1858–1939), local politician, teacher, philosopher
• Theodor Bauer (1858–1944), ministerial official and politician (DVP)
• Bruno Schoenlank (1859–1901), politician, journalist and founding and editor-in-chief of the “Leipziger Volkszeitung”; worked closely with Rosa Luxembourg together
• Karl Güldenapfel (1859–1944), Evangelical Lutheran pastor
• Paul Blau (1861–1944), Protestant theologian and author
• Theodor Fischer (1862–1938), architect; built the higher girls' school in Sondershausen (today: Käthe-Kollwitz-Grundschule and Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium House II)
• Alfred Reisenauer (1863–1907), pianist, composer and music teacher
• Eugen Robert Weiss (1863–1933), chamber singer
• Hedwig Andersen (1866–1957), music teacher
• Else Lehmann (1866–1940), actress
• Friedrich Grützmacher the Younger (1866–1919), cellist
• Carl Corbach (1867–1947), violin virtuoso, conductor and head of the conservatory
• Otto Anthes (1867–1954), educator and writer
• Emil Högg (1867–1954), architect, renovated the Trinity Church (Sondershausen) in 1831/32
• Willy Burmester (1869–1933), violinist, composer and editor
• Richard D. Volkmann (1870–1954), German colonial officer
• Gustav Cords (1870–1951), composer
• Siegfried Philippi (1871–1936), actor, director and screenwriter
• Albert Fischer (1873–1916), chamber singer and singing teacher
• Max Reger (1873–1916), composer
• Waldemar von Wasielewski (1875–1959), German writer
• Ferdinand Menge (1876–1962), painter and graphic artist
• Alfred Berg (1876–1945), teacher in Sondershausen
• Kurt Lindner (1877–1966), entrepreneur
• Walter Kollo (1878–1940), composer
• Albert Fischer (1878–1948), musician, singer and music teacher; Founder of the Albert Fischer Choir in Sondershausen
• August Reinbrecht (1882–1929), lawyer, first district administrator in the district of Sondershausen , administrator of the principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
• Richard Barth (educator) (born 1883), educator and director of studies
• Wilhelm Backhaus (1884–1969), pianist and music teacher
• Heinrich Sthamer (1885–1955), German composer and music theorist
• Hans Stieber (1886–1969), conductor and composer
• Bruno Bieligk (1889–1969), member of the Schwarzburg-Sondershausen state parliament
• Fritz Kampers (1891–1950), actor
• Willy Maertens (1893–1967), actor
• Otto Wartisch (1893–1969), Kapellmeister and conductor of the Loh Orchestra Sondershausen
• Walter Schartner (1894–1970), composer and conductor, conductor of the court orchestra and conductor of the Loh orchestra in Sondershausen
• John Fernström (1897–1961), Swedish composer and conductor
• Karl Picard , also Carl, (18 ?? - 1913), palaeontologist, botanist, geologist, mineralogist, teacher and principal of the community school in Sondershausen

20th century

• Erdmann Schott (1900–1983), theologian, Luther Academy
• Wilhelm Lotze (1902–1983), lawyer and notary
• Willi Hera (1903–1980), composer
• Rudolf Otto Wiemer (1905–1998), theater and music critic
• Anni Karstädt (1906–2006), lecture artist
• Ernst Wilhelm Borchert (1907–1990), actor and voice actor
• Gerhart Wiesenhütter (1912–1978), conductor and organist
• Wolfried Lier (1917–1993), actor
• Albert Hetterle (1918–2006), actor and director
• Hans Winkler (1919–2000), painter and music teacher in Sondershausen
• Heinz Beberniß (1920–2012), sculptor, painter and graphic artist
• Werner Schubert-Deister (1921–1991), painter and sculptor, as a music student in Sondershausen
• Karl-Ernst Sasse (1923-2006), film composer
• Wilhelm Seyffert (1924–2008), scientist
• Wolfgang Senger (1925–2009), administrative officer of the state of Lower Saxony and district president of the Hanover administrative district
• Wolfgang Marschner (1926–2020), violinist, composer and conductor
• Klaus Storck (1928–2011), cellist and university professor
• Richard Gothe (1928–1985), politician
• Manfred Schubert (1930–1987), Professor of Process Engineering, President of the Chamber of Technology and Member of the People's Chamber of the GDR
• Maria Sebaldt (* 1930), actress
• Wilhelm Bartels (1930–2010), musician and sculptor
• Toni Skaba (* 1932), soccer player and coach
• Don Smithers (* 1933), music historian and interpreter on natural trumpet and zinc
• Manfred Schmitz (1939–2014), composer and pianist
• Hans Wilhelm May (1940–2010), city chronicler
• Dieter Strödter (* 1941), educator
• Günter Grüner (1942–2016), regional politician
• Thomas Sanderling (* 1942), conductor
• Rainer Cadenbach (1944–2008), musicologist
• Gisela Hilbrecht (* 1948), head of the special school in Sondershausen and politician
• Lutz Vogel (* 1949), cultural politician
• Christian Paschold (* 1949), sculptor
• Joachim Kreyer (* 1956), Mayor of Sondershausen between 1990 and 2018
• Johannes Selle (* 1956), politician
• Ute Freudenberg (* 1956), pop and pop singer; was discovered in Sondershausen (Straussberg) as a singing talent
• Dorothea Marx (* 1957), regional politician
• Michael Schindhelm (* 1960), director of the Theater Nordhausen Loh-Orchester Sondershausen GmbH
• Gerald Höfer (* 1960), writer, editor and publisher
• Ralf Benschu (* 1962), musician
• Jens Ramme (* 1963), former soccer goalkeeper
• Lars Tietje (* 1967), artistic director and managing director of Theater Nordhausen / Loh-Orchester Sondershausen GmbH
• Jens Goldhardt (* 1968), organist
• Marc-Oliver Hendriks (* 1970), deputy general manager and administrative director of Theater Nordhausen / Loh-Orchester Sondershausen GmbH
• Jens Weißgärber (* 1971), former soccer player
• Michio (* 1971), flamenco guitarist and composer
• Patrick Kurth (* 1976), politician (FDP)
• Martin Höfer (* 1982), concept and media artist
• Daniel Kraus (* 1984), soccer coach and former soccer goalkeeper